ASCAP, the music licensing organization, has revived the Deems Taylor Award for excellence in music journalism after a one-year suspension of the program. New support from the Music Publishers Association (MPA) underwrites several categories of Awards for non-fiction prose about music published in English in the United States during calendar year 2009. Books, articles in print and online, and liner notes are among eligible works. The application deadline for the Awards is July 15 July 31, and submission guidelines can be read here.
Deems Taylor, for whom the Awards are named, was a music critic and journalist, broadcast personality, narrator of Walt Disney’s Fantasia, composer of concert music and opera, ASCAP president from 1942 to 1948 and a member of the ASCAP Board of Directors from 1933 to 1966. Recent recipients of Deems Taylor awards include JJA members Stephanie Stein Crease, Francis Davis, Gary Giddins, Ted Gioia, David Hajdu, Geoffrey Himes, Ashley Kahn, Gene Lees, John McDonough, Dan Morgenstern, Ted Panken, Doug Ramsey, Richard Sudhalter and Neil Tesser. The 2010 Deems Taylor Awards will be the 42nd such event.
